BloodRayne Review

The vampirish vixen finally sinks her bloody blades into the PC.

Graphics The visual side of BloodRayne is solid, if not impressive compared to many new games on the PC. In early stages, gamers walk through swamps filled with misty waters complete with broken down structures, riddled with holes and cracks, which float in water. Later the heroine progresses through candlelight cathedrals with gothic hangings and demonic paraphernalia -- it's very stylistic. Of course, everything has been upgraded for the PC version of the game, and it shows. The game's textures and clarity are much higher than it's console forbearers. While it's not going to seriously impress anyone all the time, it can look pretty good.

Meanwhile the main character, from the sexy, revealing leather outfit, to the hip hair clips that swing with real physics as she jumps around, is well designed, though quite obviously way over the top. She looks the part of a vampire sex kitten. Animations, especially for running forward, seem a bit on the stiff side and there is the very occasional view in which she appears to be floating inches above the ground, not walking upon it. Sometimes BloodRayne seems natural in her movements, but most of the time, especially when pulling off combos, she looks exactly like a construct in a video game and unnatural in her actions. The enemy characters, meanwhile, are downright disgusting -- the spidery things that chase gamers around in the early stages and lame and annoying sperm looking parasites that infect Nazi soldiers later in the game. It's the Nazi leaders later in the experience that come off more as goofy than anything else, but perhaps that is the point.

Terminal Reality has tried a lot, whether it always works or not. The worlds are varied. They are filled with objects that feature full damage models. Just about everything in the game can be carved up, blown up, or fully destroyed, from book shelves to cabinets, tables to chairs, and more. There are cloth physics. Sheets of Nazi covers hang from walls and if gamers want they can tear them up with BloodRayne's claws -- her primary weapon -- or simply walk through them, at which point they will sway and move back and forth. It's a nice effect, but one that's becoming commonplace. Lighting effects are everywhere, from the real-time torches that flicker about in environments to the many guns the vampire can rain upon foes, all of which illuminate the immediate area in flashes and bangs. Most impressive of all, is probably the gore. BloodRayne is one of the most violent titles in existence and it does its job well -- the blood and guts in this game are executed very well. Particle blood sprays in every direction, body parts are dismembered and thrown into the air, and the floor becomes drenched in red, realistic blood as the female avenger dices and slices and de-limbed enemies go running away in dismay. The engine itself spits out tens of enemies on-screen at once, too, which often results in a virtual blood bath of guts and body parts, drenched flooring and splattered walls. It's a mess, but it's done so well that there is a tangible sense of accomplishment having bested a group of Nazi scum, especially when playing in slow time. It's actually a bit reminiscent of Blade of Darkness and it's bloody and brutal combat.

On the other hand, the framerate isn't always steady, even on the computers that are running the game for us here -- there are drops here in there depending upon the architecture detail and the number of enemies on-screen. Frankly, the game doesn't look good enough to get these drops, but I've seen worse performance recently, and these drops only started happening at extreme points with the resolution on 1024x768. Massive explosions -- bombs thrown by enemies, also cause the fluidity to chug for a second or two before it can repair itself, which is also sad considering the explosions aren't really that impressive. Some of the models are terribly low in polygons to the point where they seriously look edgy. There is some serious clipping at points. Some of the texture work is blurry and unrefined. And then there is the camera, which sometimes gets in the way of the action, a disappointment. There is bad here for sure, but the good generally picks up the slack for an experience that's a tiny bit above average.

Sound The audio presence in BloodRayne is probably its weakest element. The game's music is moody and fitting for the environments and there are specific scenes in which some of the sound effects manage to scare too. But the one-liners are usually poorly acted and unnecessary. BloodRayne is known to casually spout out lines like "You bastard!" to enemies simply for the point of cussing. She sometimes talks to herself long after an enemy encounter has ended. The 'F' word is also frequently used for no innovative reason. People buying the game for its 'Mature' rating alone will probably laugh with glee at some of the profanities in place, but the rest of the title, for all of its cliches and borrowed inspirations, somehow comes off as smarter.

More troublesome, though, is that there are very rare audio pops -- almost glitch-like noises, that happen every once in a long while during fights. And even worse was the fact that every bit of dialogue in the game managed to get cut off before it was finished. Every line of dialogue. It sounds like all of the characters are rudely interrupting each other constantly. It's a good thing that there's text also because a lot of dialogue would be missed otherwise. That's pretty inexcusable.

The Verdict

BloodRayne is not going to change the videogame industry, It has its problems -- some technical shortcomings here and there, some camera oversights and the occasional level layout difficulty, but I have to admit that I enjoyed playing through the 3D action title; that it delivered a fun little ride while it lasted.

There's a good amount of entertainment to be had controlling BloodRayne through a series of varied locals while ripping through enemies in orgies of bloody fights. The borrowed "bullet time" effects are equally well done and have a real place in the game; there are lots of moves and weapons to be learned, acquired and utilized at the peril of the disgusting foes; and the visuals manage to impress on many levels, from the damage models in place to the detail in the architecture, dynamic lighting effects, cloth physics and more.

This is not a bad game. But don't confuse it for a 3D adventure. So long as gamers go in knowing that -- expecting fights and gore versus puzzle solving and a deep, engaging quest of some sort -- they should come away happy in spite of its quick play through and lack of originality.